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“Time Flies here.” utters Hector, as he and his wife assemble light-weight furniture to decorate their house, the place still deep in the construction phase, nestled on the edge of the wilderness.  It is a life unsettled, still finding its groove, with little or no sense of permanence to its hollow walls and empty rooms.  From this ungrounded state, the downward spiral of our story unfolds and little by little we fall deeper in the rabbit hole of the unknown.   It is Hectors own voyeuristic inclinations that compel him forward and as punishment for his sexual gaze upon a helpless female form naked in the woods (as spied through his binoculars, which hang firmly around his neck) a mysterious figure appears, his face covered in bloody bandages like a “pink mummy” and stabs Hector in the arm with a pair of household scissors.  Like a wounded puppy, the victim Hector runs away from whom we soon discover is the killer Hector”2, an alternate version of himself transformed through a series of events that force time and events to occur and be reenacted as not to break the time continuum and alter present reality.  The film delves deep into the meaning of self-identity and people who undergo transformation both physically and internally in order to get back what they feel has been lost, or taken from them.  Done with little to no special effects, this low budget sci-fi proves that through great writing, compelling characters, a sense of film history coupled with original thought, genre-bending, progressive filmmaking results.  An amazing film debut from Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo.

Grade: A-

Another Not Quite Hollywood Ozploitation recommendation, though, unlike the previously reviewed Long Weekend, this little film dates itself through its’ over reliance on the visuals, each perfectly composed, yet utterly false shot, one-upping the next. The storyline lives somewhere in Tremors territory, but, unlike that film, their isn’t a single believable character, or single frame, for that matter, or anything remotely organic. Russell Mulcahy clearly set out to imitate, what he thought, defines a Hitchcock film, but threw all his effort into the look of the film and ignored what truly matters, the emotional core.  Yes, Russell, even genre horror films need characters an audience feels for, or believes for that matter. 

Grade: D

Rudi and Trudi, an aging Bavarian couple sit beside each other at a train station, the husband unaware he is dying of terminal cancer; a diagnosis privledge only to the wife who debates when and how to tell her husband. A train passes and she casually remarks “If you were at the end of your days, if time were running out, what would you like to do?”  to which he replies “I’d leave it up to you. I always do what you want anyways.”  

As the film progresses, we learn that this seemingly generous and beautiful remark is not true at all. If fact, the wife has spent her entire life devoted to her husband and the lifestyle that his occupation has provided for them, including the ritual summer camping trips with the family, that she never wanted to take, living and remaining in a small town, venturing out only periodically on brief excursions only to return home when he had had enough. Though, the repeated point, that she was a happy woman confirms that, although she made major sacrifices for the betterment of her family, her life had reason and she was loved. Her unexpected sudden death emotionally destroys both the audience and the family, sending Rudi on a journey of redemption and self discovery, in Japan, the birthplace of Butoh dance, Trudi’s true inner passion long suppressed by her husbands insecurity of her ability to outwardly express herself. The film beautifully details the difficulty of family relationships, not only between husband and wife, but in the distance that develops with one’s children as they grow up and move on with their lives. Even death may not prove strong enough to rekindle severed ties. Easily one of the most emotionally devastating movies I’ve seen in a long while.

Grade: A-